Is Knox the victim of a 'railroad job from hell'?

Investigator hired by CBS show to examine murder case thinks so

Updated 10:00 pm, Friday, April 11, 2008

Amanda Knox, shown in an undated photo to be featured on "48 Hours Mystery," is being held in Italy on suspicion of murder.

Amanda Knox, shown in an undated photo to be featured on "48 Hours Mystery," is being held in Italy on suspicion of murder.

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Is Knox the victim of a 'railroad job from hell'?

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Amanda Knox, the 20-year-old former University of Washington honor student suspected in her roommate's slaying, is the victim of a "railroad job from hell" at the hands of Italian investigators hoping to solve the November slaying.

That's the conclusion of one private investigator hired by producers for an upcoming episode of "48 Hours Mystery."

The program, set to air at 10 p.m. Saturday on CBS, highlights the conclusions of two private investigators as well as interviews with Knox's parents and others involved in the case.

What they found, "48 Hours" executive producer Susan Zirinsky said, is that the evidence against Knox is nowhere near as strong as police in Perugia, Italy, would suggest.

"Do we know every piece of data? No. Is there some troubling DNA? Yes," Zirinsky said in an interview. "But it does feel from the wide shot that there are some real problems in this case. ... It's just not a clean case."

Knox and her former boyfriend, 24-year- old Italian engineering student Raffaele Sollecito, were arrested Nov. 6 on suspicion of killing Meredith Kercher, a 21-year-old British student who shared a flat with Knox in the Italian college town. Knox was a UW student on a study-abroad program at the time.

Kercher was found on her bedroom floor covered in a blanket, her neck slashed with a knife. Authorities initially said she was raped during the attack, but a coroner wasn't able to say for certain whether she'd been sexually assaulted or had consensual sex.

Since the arrests, reversals by police and conflicting statements by Knox have clouded the case against her and Sollecito.

Zirinsky said "48 Hours" private investigators question the legitimacy of statements Knox made to police shortly after her arrest in the killing. Although some media outlets heralded them as confessions, Italian authorities have since discredited part of the statements.

Knox, who was raised in West Seattle, initially told investigators she was in the Perugia flat when Kercher was killed. In words reprinted around the globe, Knox said she "heard Meredith screaming" as she cowered in their shared kitchen.

She later recanted that version of the story, as she did other statements she made that pointed to popular bar owner and musician Patrick Diya Lumumba as the killer. Lumumba was cleared weeks later after investigators determined that he was at his bar when Kercher was killed.

Shortly after Lumumba's release, police arrested Ivory Coast national Rudy Hermann Guede, saying his fingerprints had been found at the scene. Guede, a college dropout living in Perugia, has since admitted to being in the apartment when Kercher was killed but claims not to have seen her killer.

Chicago defense investigator Paul Ciolino told "48 Hours" that he believes Guede killed Kercher in a robbery attempt and that Knox and Sollecito should be released from prison immediately.

Knox has challenged the evidence against her in court, unsuccessfully. Three times since her arrest, Italian judges have ruled there's enough evidence against her and Sollecito to keep them in prison.

Hired by "48 Hours" to review the case, Ciolino said police don't have any solid evidence linking Knox or Sollecito to the killing. Speaking on the program, Ciolino said he's convinced that young women such as Knox -- a Seattle Prep grad who made the UW honor roll -- don't commit murder.

"Jesuit-educated high school girls who are high honors students ... don't participate in orgies and homicides," Ciolino said. "They don't do it. And if you can tell me of one that does, I'd sure like to see her."

Knox's background made great grist for the media, particularly in Britain, where Kercher's death prompted a massive outpouring of grief. Each new development garnered screaming headlines in British tabloids, where Knox was often painted as a woman with dark secrets.

In Ciolino's view, Italian authorities were under pressure after a young, pretty student was killed on their watch. Intent on cracking the case, they pushed Knox into a lengthy statement during a 14-hour interview and haven't been able to back down since.

"This is a railroad job from hell, and she's sitting at the end of it right now," Ciolino told "48 Hours." "They've put so much into Amanda Knox, they have to convict her now or they look like fools."

Another investigator hired by "48 Hours," Paolo Sfriso, didn't share Ciolino's view. Sfriso agreed there are problems with the case put forward by prosecutors, but he said there are also some apparently damning pieces of evidence.

There are the shoe print left in Kercher's blood that investigators say matches a pair owned by Sollecito, the knife with Knox's DNA on the handle and Kercher's on the blade. There are the blood evidence on a bra strap that carries DNA from Guede and Sollecito, and more DNA in the sink showing blood from both Knox and Kercher.

And, Sfriso told "48 Hours," there's Knox's strange behavior in the days after Kercher was killed. Surveillance video shows Knox and Sollecito shopping for underwear the day after finding Kercher's body; other shoppers said they overheard the couple talking graphically about sex.